FILM SCORE FRIDAY 12/13/02
By Scott Bettencourt
Film Score Monthly is proud to announce that our latest CDs are now
in stock! Our Silver Age release is a two-disc set of music from the classic
sixties spy TV series THE
MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., featuring suites from episodes scored by Jerry
Goldsmith, Lalo Schifrin, Gerald Fried, Morton Stevens,
Robert Drasnin, Walter Scharf, and Richard Shores.
Our Golden Age release is Miklos Rozsa's score to the romantic
drama THE
SEVENTH SIN, set in Hong Kong and China and directed by The
Poseidon Adventure's Ronald Neame. Look into my eyes. You will buy
these discs. You will buy these discs.
One more reminder: Bruce Broughton will be signing
copies of the brand new Intrada Special Collection CD of his MIRACLE
ON 34TH STREET score at Creature Features on Saturday December 14th
from 2 to 4. Intrada will also have numerous other Broughton soundtracks
on hand for signing, including SILVERADO, LOST IN SPACE, RESCUERS DOWN
UNDER and THE BOY WHO COULD FLY.
Creature Features is located at 1802 West Olive Avenue in Burbank. If
you're unable to attend in person, call (818) 842-9383 or fax to (818)
842-0752 to pre-order your own personalized copy. For e-mail inquiries,
contact cfeatures@earthlink.net.
After a brief but still atypical period when the Varese
Sarabande website's Upcoming Releases page had absolutely no listings,
Varese has finally announced some upcoming discs. On January 28 they will
release Klaus Badelt's score to THE RECRUIT (formerly titled
The Farm), a spy thriller wherein C.I.A. recruit Colin Farrell is
torn between his loyalty towards his trainer, Al Pacino, and his new love,
Bridget Moynihan, who may be a double agent.
On the same day, they will release John Powell's score to the
new romantic comedy TWO WEEKS NOTICE, which pairs Sandra Bullock
and Hugh Grant for the first time. The film is the directorial debut of
screenwriter Marc Lawrence, who also wrote Forces of Nature and
the Out-of-Towners remake, but despite those credits this movie
looks like it might actually be good.
On February 11th, Varese will rerelease Jerry Goldsmith's STAR
TREK: NEMESIS score in the SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) format.
Though the website does not state so explicitly, it is assumed that the
disc will have the same contents as their recent regular release of the
Nemesis score.
On the FSM
Message Board, Monstrous Movie
Music has announced that their next two much desired and extremely
long awaited CDs will tentatively be released in January of 2003. THIS
ISLAND EARTH will feature Herman Stein's score to the big-budget
50s sci-fi flick, as well as music from Ron Goodwin's score to THE
DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, Walter Greene's main title from WAR
OF THE SATELLITES, and Daniele Amfitheatrof's theme from EARTH
VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS.
MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, a disc-length tribute to Ray Harryhausen, will
feature music from Roy Webb's score to the Oscar-winning ape film
(remade recently with a James Horner score as well as a cameo by Harryhausen
himself), as well as music from 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (rerecordings
of Mischa Bakaleinikoff's original cues and library music) and Paul
Sawtell's music for Harryhausen's stop-motion dinosaur sequence for
Irwin Allen's THE ANIMAL WORLD. If these discs are as good as Monstrous
Movie Music's previous rerecordings, they should be spectacular.
Screen Archives is working on a two-disc CD of the classic
London-noir film NIGHT AND THE CITY, which will feature both Franz
Waxman's score for the American release of the film, and Benjamin
Frankel's music for the British prints.
The latest issue of The New Yorker features a Ken
Auletta profile of controversial Miramax head Harvey Weinstein titled "Beauty
and the Beast." The article describes an incident in which Weinstein allegedly
told director Julie Taymor (at a recruited screening of FRIDA) "You
are the most arrogant person I have ever met," and remarked to Taymor's
composer/companion Elliot Goldenthal "I don't like the look on your
face. Why don't you defend her so I can beat the s*** out of you?"
A brand new CD label, Preseverance Records, has announced
that their first release will be a 1000 copy limited edition of David
Bergeaud's score to the 1997 remake of PRINCE VALIANT. They
are also planning a CD of John Gale's score to DR. PHIBES RISES
AGAIN.
In last Friday's column, as well as this week's Aisle
Seat, we announced that the German DVD of the Andy Garcia thriller The
Unsaid features a CD of Don Davis's complete score for the film. We
have since learned that though the DVD is legit, the CD is a bootleg. However,
La La Land Records is planning to release a limited edition of the score
early next year. It will cost only $14.98, so save your deutschmarks.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
About Schmidt - Rolfe Kent - New Line
Antwone Fisher - Mychael Danna - Superb
Catch Me If You Can - John Williams - Dreamworks
The Hours - Philip Glass - Nonesuch
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Howard Shore - Warner
Bros.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Jerry Goldsmith, et al - Film Score
Monthly
Pinocchio - Nicola Piovani - Virgin
The Seventh Sin - Miklos Rozsa - Film Score Monthly
Solaris - Cliff Martinez - Superb
COMING SOON
December 17
8 Women - Krishna Levy - Rhino
Gangs of New York - Howard Shore - Interscope
January 28
The Recruit - Klaus Badelt - Varese Sarabande
Two Weeks Notice - John Powell - Varese Sarabande
February 11
Diamonds Are Forever - John Barry - EMI/Capitol
Live and Let Die - George Martin - EMI/Capitol
On Her Majesty's Secret Service - John Barry - EMI/Capitol
February 25
Goldfinger - John Barry - EMI/Capitol
Thunderball - John Barry - EMI/Captol
You Only Live Twice - John Barry - EMI/Capitol
Date Unknown
Amerika - Basil Poledouris - Prometheus
The Big Sky - Dimitri Tiomkin - Screen Archives/BYU
The Busy Body/The Spirit is Willing - Vic Mizzy - Percepto
Fear No Evil - Frank LaLoggia - Percepto
Gods and Generals - Randy Edelman, John Frizzell - Sony Classical
Mighty Joe Young, etc. - Roy Webb, et al - Monstrous Movie Music
The Package - James Newton Howard - Prometheus CD Club
The Swarm - Jerry Goldsmith - Prometheus CD Club
This Island Earth, etc. - Herman Stein, et al - Monstrous Movie
Music
IN THEATERS TODAY
About Schmidt - Rolfe Kent - Score CD on New Line
Drumline - John Powell - Song CD on Jive
Evelyn - Stephen Endelman - Score CD on Decca
The Guys - Mychael Danna - Soundtrack due on Sony Classical
The Hot Chick - John Debney - Song CD on Hollywood
Maid in Manhattan - Alan Silvestri - Song CD on Epic with 1
Silvestri cue
Skins - B.C. Smith
Star Trek: Nemesis - Jerry Goldsmith - Score CD on Varese Sarabande
Talk to Her - Alberto Iglesias - Score CD on Milan
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
ADAPTATION - Carter Burwell
"--charmingly offbeat percussive score by Carter Burwell--"
Todd McCarthy, Variety
DID SHE MENTION THE MUSIC?
The penultimate chapter in our resurrection of Pauline Kael's opinions
on film music.
CARRIE
The Pino Donaggio music for Carrie is modest
and inoffensive, though more derivative than one might like.
(from When the Lights Go Down, published by Henry Holt &
Co.)
COMES A HORSEMAN
You can't see this movie, and you don't have much to listen
to, either, except Michael Small's mood music.
(from When the Lights Go Down, published by Henry Holt &
Co.)
MIDNIGHT EXPRESS
[Director Alan] Parker and [writer Oliver] Stone pile on
the horrors, and together with the composer, Giorgio Moroder, and
his synthesizer, jack them up to a frenzy.
(from When the Lights Go Down, published by Henry Holt &
Co.)
PLATOON
The picture begins with an epigraph from Ecclesiastes ("Rejoice,
O young man, in thy youth!"), and then the music, Samuel Barber's "Adagio
For Strings" (which was used so chastely in The Elephant Man), comes
on in a soupy orchestration by Georges Delerue -- and the movie
is grandiloquent before it even gets rolling.
(from Hooked, published by E.P. Dutton)
TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE
With the gloppy rich music [by Jerry Goldsmith],
and what might be (laughingly) described as the ensemble acting, the tone
here [in the "Kick the Can" segment] is sentimental-comic, and horribly
slick.
(from State of the Art, published by Bookthrift Co.)
UTU
The score, written by John Charles, and recorded
by a traditional Maori flautist and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra,
takes risks, and most of the time the risks come off gloriously.
(from State of the Art, published by Bookthrift Co.)
VAMPIRE'S KISS
The young British director Robert Bierman works well with
the performers, and an eerie score, by Colin Towns, and the cinematography,
by Stefan Czapsky, help to suggest a madman's city.
(from Movie Love, published by Plume)
THE WARRIORS
But the acid-rock score, by Barry DeVorzon, with
its electric, third-rail sound, seems perfectly rhythmed to the images.
(from When the Lights Go Down, published by Henry Holt &
Co.)
WHO IS KILLING THE GREAT CHEFS OF EUROPE?
The Henry Mancini score has some deft weightlessly
ominous passages.
(from When the Lights Go Down, published by Henry Holt &
Co.)
ON WILLIAMS AND CRITICS
FROM: JEDIMAESTRO@aol.com
SUBJECT: Far & Away
Shame on you!
The above is an exceptional theme & score. The Land Race &
End Credits are two of his finest cues among far too many flopped or underrated
films from the Williams canon.
FROM: Joseph Caporiccio <joecaps@earthlink.net>
SUBJECT: Williams Poll Far and Away
I agree with Andy Dursin - Far and Away should be included in the
Williams poll I think its one of his greatest scores!
I still don't regret leaving Far and Away out of the Williams main
title poll -- if nothing else, I've given many of its devotees a chance
to express their love for what is oddly the most divisive score in the
Williams canon.
However, I do slightly regret including Accidental Tourist. Not
that I love the score any less -- it's just I'd forgotten that the main
title is more of a mood piece than a strong statement of the melody. There
is some clever use of motific scoring in it, though. The "accidental tourist"
theme is heard only twice in the main title -- first when we see the "Accidental
Tourist" travel guide, and shortly after when we see William Hurt's face
for the first time.
FROM: Arthur Lintgen <alintgen@comcast.net>
SUBJECT: Williams and Harry Potter
The critical babbling about the " bombastic" Harry Potter score
merely emphasizes the ignorance of movie critics when they talk about film
music. Anyone who even bothers to listen to the music for Harry Potter
will probably object mainly to the fact that it is too pervasively light,
and misses the powerful dark side of the story. This is not loud Williams
by any stretch of the imagination. The volume problem on the soundtrack
is purely a function of the sound mix, which is presumably the Director's
decision that Williams had nothing to do with. I suspect that Columbus
was very insecure with the first picture given all the hype, and that it
had to be carried by three untested children. He thus mixed the music loudly
in an effort to choreograph and support the visuals, especially with the
children. It made over 900 million worldwide, and I doubt all those people
coming out of the theatre humming the theme objected to the music. In addition,
just because a given critic doesn't like to hear music on the soundtrack
does not mean the music itself is bad. I wonder how these idiots would
have reacted to Korngold's wall to wall dominant and busy scoring technique.
They would probably praise it, because he is a classical composer with
a reputation, and that would reflect favorably on them. Now, let's see,
who is the composer who most influenced Williams?
I love Williams as much as the next man, but I still feel that the first
third of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is wildly overscored.
Every scene seems to have a full orchestra proclaiming loudly just how
magical and wondrous the onscreen events are. Personally, I blame Chris
Columbus (though the Potter films are by far his best), since I
don't think Williams' own sensibilities tend to be so heavy handed.
FROM: "simon st. laurent" <tranya@hotmail.com>
SUBJECT: critics
Film scoring today is in a sorry state -- perhaps one of the worst
states it has ever been in. You have producers and directors who don't
care about one of the most fascinating -- and very important -- disciplines
in filmmaking. This is, in all probability, why you have many (what should
be) small comedy films which are often supported by over the top scores.
Most studio people promote eighty piece orchestras based on what they feel
is expected and dictated by popular convention. Large orchestral music
is used to blanket films today without any regard to the dramatic intentions
of a particular film. What we have today, in film scoring, is "filmmusic
white noise". This isn't always the case, of course, but it is all too
common.
Any film critic who writes at least one sentence discussing the
use and effect of music in the film he or she is reviewing is undoubtedly
impressing us. They took the time to observe -- even if we don't necessarily
agree with them. High marks to Mr. McCarthy [Todd McCarthy in Variety]
for making those observations and impressions.
FROM: John Fitzpatrick <John.Fitzpatrick@gale.com>
Stephane Michaud wrote:
When asked about the overall appreciation of film music, I keep
quoting THE TEN COMMANDMENTS: "To those who believe, no explanation is
necessary; to those who don't, no explanation is possible."
That epigraph actually appeared at the start of THE SONG OF BERNADETTE.
I believe it derives from Saint Augustine.
RUN, VON RYAN!
FROM: <steve.elkin@cwctv.net> |
SUBJECT: Re New poll [unreleased Goldsmith]
Von Ryan's Express seems to be missing!!!!!!
GOODNIGHT, GOODNIGHT
FROM: "Randy Derchan"
SUBJECT: Golden Gun
And damn it, I LOVE the Man With the Golden Gun song.
Hell, yeah. I never understood why the song and score took such
a beating.
Considering the title and the time allotment Barry had, it's fabulous.
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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